Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

-410 DIMACHERI. DIONYSTA.
causa caun peregrinis institszuntur). Dies proeliales DIMENSUM. [SEavus.]
were all days on which religion did not forbid to DIMINU'TIO CA'PITIS. [CAP UT.]
commence a war; a list of days and festivals on DIO'BOLOS. [DRACHMA.]
which it was contrary to religion to commence a DIOCLEIA (dsXcAesa), a festival celebrated by
war is given by Macrobius. See also Festus, s. v. the Megarians in honour of an ancient Athenian
Compare Manutius, De 7eteraum Dierum Ratione, hero, Diocles, around whose grave young men asand the article CALENDARIUM. [L. S.] senhbled on the occasion, and amused themselves
DIFFAREA'TIO. [DIVORTIUM.] with gymnastic and other contests. We read that
DIGESTA. [PANDECTA.E.] he who gave the sweetest kiss obtained the prize,
DIGITA'LIA. [MANICA.] consisting of a garland of flowers. (Theocrit.
DI'GITUS. [PEs.] Idyll. xii. 27, &c.) The Scholiast on Theocritus
DIIPOLEIA (s7nro'XEta), also called AL7rdXEla (I. c.) relates the origin of this festival as foIor Alro'dta, a very ancient festival celebrated every lows: - Diocles, an Athenian exile, fled to Meyear on the acropolis of Athens in honour of Zeus, gara, where he found a youth with whom he fell
surnamed IloslAes. (Paus. i. 14. ~ 4; comp. Anti- in love. In some battle, while protecting the
phon, 120. 10.) Suidas and the Scholiast on object of his love with his shield, he was slain.
Aristophanes (Pax, 410) are mistaken in believing The Megarians honoured the gallant lover with a
that the Diipolia were the same festival as the tomb, raised hins to the rank of a hero, and in
Diasia. It was held on the 14th of Scirrophorion. commemoration of his faithful attachment, instiThe manner in which the sacrifice of an ox was tuted the festival of the Diocleia. See Bickh, ad
offered on this occasion, and the origin of the rite, Pined. Olymp. vii. 157. p. 176, and the Scholiast,
are described by Porphyrius (De Abstinent. ii. ad Asistoph. Achasrn. 730, where a Megarian
~ 29), with whose account may be compared the swears by Diodes, from which we may infer that
fragmentary descriptions of Pausanias (i. 28. ~ 11) he was held in great honour by the Megarians.
and Aelian (1. H. viii. 3). The Athenians placed (Compare Welcker's Saeplpo, p. 39, and ad
barley mixed with wheat upon the altar of Zeus Tkzeogn. p. 79.) [L. S.]
and left it unguarded; the ox destined to be sacri- DIONY'SIA (AeovS~,a), festivals celebrated
ficed was then allowed to go and take of the seeds. in various parts of Greece in honour of Dionysus.
One of the priests, who bore the name of ovqoupvos We have to consider under this head several
(whence the festival was sometimes called 8ov- festivals of the same deity, although some of them
pdvia), at seeing the ox eating, snatched the axe, bore different names; for here, as in other cases,
killed the ox, and ran away. The others, as if the name of the festival was sometimes derived
not knowing who had killed the animal, made in- from that of the god, sometimes from the place
quiries, and at last also summoned the axe, which where it was celebrated, and sometimes from some
was in the end declared guilty of having committed particular circumstance connected with its celebrathe murder. This custom is, said to have arisen tion. WVe shall, however, direct our attention
from the following circumstance:- -In the reign chiefly to the Attic festivals of Dionysus, as, on
of Erechtheus, at the celebration of the Dionysia, account of their intimate connection with the
or, according to the Scholiast on Aristophanes (Nub. origin and the development of dramatic literature,
972), at the diipolia, an ox ate the cakes offered they are of greater importance to us than any other
to the god, and one Baulon or Thaulon, or, ancient festival.
according to others, the /Bovudvos, killed the The general character of the festivals of Dioox with an axe and fled from his country. nysus was extravagant merriment and enthusiastic
The murderer having thus escaped, the axe was joy, which manifested themselves in various ways.
declared guilty, and the rite observed at the The import of some of the apparently unmeaning
diipolia was performed in commemoration of that and absurd practices in which the Greeks indulged
event. (Compare Suidas and Hesych. s. v. 3ov- during the celebration of the Dionysia, has been
ptdvma.) This legend of the origin of the diipolia well explained by MUller (Hist. of the Lit. of Asc.
manifestly leads us back to a time when it had not Greece, i. p. 289): -" The intense desire felt by
yet become customary to offer animal sacrifices to every worshipper of Dionysus to fight, to conquer,
the gods, but merely the fruits of the earth. to suffer in common with him, made them regard
Porphyrius also informs us that three Athenian the subordinate beings (satyrs, panes, and nymphs,
families had their especial (probably hereditary) by whom the god himself was surrounded, and
functions to perform at this festival. Members of through whom life seemed to pass from him into
the one drove the ox to the altar, and were thence vegetation, and branch off into a variety of beauticalled icsrpa'pi3at: another family, descended from fifl or grotesque forms), who were ever present to
3aulon and called the 30ovr7ror, knocked the the fancy of the Greeks, as a convenient step by
victim down; and a third, designated by the name which they could approach more nearly to the
of aemrpon, killed it. (Compare Creuzer's Mlythlol. presence of their divinity. The customs so prevaund S//anbol. i. p. 172, iv. p. 122, &c.) [L. S.] lent at the festivals of Dionysus, of taking the disDIMACHAE (alfadXat), Macedonian horse- guise of satyrs, doubtless originated in this feeling,
soldiers, who also fought on foot when occasion and not in the mere desire of concealing excesses
required. Their armour was heavier than that of under the disguise of a mask, otherwise so serious
the ordinary horse-soldiers, and lighter than that and pathetic a spectacle as tragedy could never
of the regular heavy-armed foot. A servant ac- have originated in the choruses of these satyrs.
companied each soldier in order to take care of his The desire of escaping from self into something
horse when he alighted to fight on foot. This new and strange, of living in an imaginary world,
species of troops is said to have been first intro- breaks forth in a thousand instances in these
duced by Alexander the Great. (Pollux, i. 132; festivals of Dionysus. It is seen in the colnuring
Curtius, v. 13.) the body with plaster, soot, vermilion, and difDIMACHERI. [GLADIATOaRES.] ferent sorts of green and red juices of plants, wears